Wednesday, March 25, 2015

With Valor and Faith

by
Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

This Shabbos is
known as Shabbos Hagadol, the Great Shabbos. Unlike every other
special day on our calendar that is commemorated on the date of the month upon
which the original neis occurred, Shabbos Hagadol commemorates an
event that took place on the Shabbos prior to the Pesach holiday
but it is not celebrated on the date of Yud Nissan when it actually
transpired.

The greatness of this Shabbos
is the fact that the Jews inMitzrayim were mosernefesh
to tie the god of their persecutors to their beds. Sheep, the deity of Egypt,
would be used as the sacrifice for the Korban Pesach four days later.
The fact that Jews brought home sheep was not in itself a heroic act. They
could have been bringing the sheep home to worship, or to feed and care for
them. There was nothing inherent in the act of bringing home sheep that put the
Jews’ lives at risk.

The act of mesirus
nefesh was that although they were not specifically commanded to do so, the
Bnei Yisroel didn’t shy away from staring their oppressors in the eye
and telling them, “We are bringing home these sheep because we will be
slaughtering them.” For all time, we celebrate their act of mesirus nefesh,
and their fearless act consecrated this Shabbos for all time as Shabbos
Hagadol, the Great Shabbos.

Shabbos is a remnant and hint of the olam hatikkun. During
the week, we are subservient to our hosts in golus. We accept the curse
of the sheishes yemei hamaaseh. We bow our heads and seek to overcome
the prevalent darkness. On Shabbos, however, we are different.

Shabbos is ushered in with the rousing song, “Loseivoshi
velo sikolmi,” proclaiming, “Klal Yisroel, today let us not be
embarrassed.” Together with our neshamah yeseirah, let us enjoy this day
of mei’ein OlamHaba, which provides us with a taste of the
superiority we will yet enjoy, when we will hold our heads high, when nivnesah
ihr al tilah will be a reality.”

Therefore, it is on Shabbos
that we commemorate what took place on the tenth day of Nissan, for the
pride, confidence and courage of our forefathers are all represented by gifts
associated with Shabbos.

It is on the Shabbos
prior to Pesach that we celebrate the brave dedication of the soon-to-be
freed people to Hashem’s commandment. They braved threats of torture and death
to bring home the sheep and tie them to their beds. On this Shabbos, we
are reminded of their bravery, and their emunah and bitachon, and
we seek to learn from them and follow their example.

We know that hakol
bishvil Yisroel, everything that occurs is, in some way, connected to us
and our destiny and for us to learn from.

The mainstream media tells
us so many stories. Each one has some relevance to KlalYisroel.

Rav Simcha Bunim of
Pshischa once commented that all the mitzvos of the Torah have one
common theme: A person is commanded not to be a na’ar. We must have seichel,
intelligence. His directive is especially appropriate when it comes to
processing the messages we are fed.

As much as we don’t think
that we are influenced by the narratives of the media, we still regularly get
fooled. We like to think that the media doesn’t affect us, and that if we don’t
read their publications, we are immune to their spin, but, unfortunately, that
is not the case.

It never made any sense
that a candidate such as Yitzchak Herzog, with Tzipi Livni at his side, could
win election as prime minster of a beleaguered country. Yet, everyone believed
the story that they were ascending while Binyamin Netanyahu was descending.
That story was conceived and promoted by the left and their media allies who
despise Netanyahu and his right-wing ideology and partners. The idea was to
lull everyone into thinking that the left can’t be beat. It was timeless
propaganda, meant to keep the right humble.

It was a lie.

This is a technique
familiar to us in America, because the president’s handlers have honed it to
perfection. They tried to implement in Israel what worked so well for them in
America. They tried to influence the outcome of the Israeli election, but their
plan failed and they and their candidates lost.

To win the election,
Netanyahu didn’t get into the gutter with them. He didn’t react to their
fallacious polls. Rather, he went back to his right-wing roots and strongly and
proudly emphasized the principles that propelled him into leadership in the
first place.

Binyamin Netanyahu is no tzaddik,
not by any measure, and he is not our role model, but he is a very fitting
protagonist for a moshol, whose lesson is so relevant to us.

The Israeli prime minister,
no paragon of personal virtue, won an election by standing tall. If
Hashgochah orchestrated that this storyline occur in the public sphere, and
if the worldwide media and punditry are discussing and analyzing this
unexpected victory, there must be a lesson in what transpired for all of us.
Just as the Chofetz Chaim taught that there are lessons for us to learn
from Chinese floods, the news from Eretz Yisroel also contains lessons for us.

In our own lives, we often
play the game of being a politician, even if we aren’t running for public
office. We look to be popular. We see which way the winds are blowing and get
in line. We don’t want to appear to be losers. We don’t want to be on the
losing team. We don’t want to be portrayed as out of touch, backward, or not
with the program.

And sometimes, we let this negius
make decisions for us, rather than having the courage to follow our
convictions.

So, when we see things that
we know are clearly wrong, we mute our responses. When we see things that are
clearly contrary to all we stand for and the way we were brought up, we turn
the other way. When we see the mesorah of our rabbeim corrupted,
we remain silent. Why get involved? Why risk people saying that we are baalei
machlokes? We have children to marry off and social obligations. We can’t
say what we really think and what we know to be the truth.

Ultimately, however, that
type of attitude results in loss.

Current realities and the
age-old lessons of our mesorah have taught us otherwise. We need to
absorb the lesson of this Shabbos and engage in personal mesirus
nefesh to face evil with valor and faith, unafraid to express our position
and defend it. All wickedness needs to triumph is for people of goodwill to
remain silent. Our rabbeim and leaders stood up and risked all for the
truth.

When Maran Rav Elozor
Menachem Man Shach zt”l had something on his mind, he said it publicly,
not fearing what people would say about him. If he knew he could make a
difference, he did.

My rebbi, Rav Elya
Svei zt”l, would say that Madison Square Garden could be filled with
people who despised him. Yet, he proudly carried the torch of Torah and mesorah
without checking the polls. May we merit siyata diShmaya to continue on
the straight path he forged for us.

Let’s stop cowering. Let’s
stop making cheshbonos. Let’s stand up to the falsifiers, the
corruptors, the ones who veer from our traditions and disrespect the holy, and
those who embrace the profane and bow to the dollar instead of the Torah.

Let’s be a mamleches
kohanim vegoy kadosh.

The Rama writes in Siman
Alef of Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim that we should never feel
embarrassed by the people who mock us: “Velo yisbayeish mipnei bnei adam
hamaligim olov ba’avodas Hashem Yisborach.”

The Mishnah Berurah
hastens to explain that even in the service of Hashem, we should not employ the
middah of azus, for it can influence our behavior in other areas.
However, in the Biur Halacha, he states that this admonition of the Bais
Yosef is only applicable when people mock one’s private observance of mitzvos,
but when people rise up to effect changes in the Torah and its observance, it
is a mitzvah to hate those people and to battle them, turning back their
plans any way you can.

Of course, the first
approach should always be a peaceful one, for theTorahis “derocheha
darchei noam vechol nesivoseha shalom.” Even when we must give tochachah,
it should be with intelligence and thoughtfulness.

Rav Chaim Leib Auerbach zt”l,
father of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, was once asked to what he
attributed the fact that he merited such distinguished children. He answered
that it was because he was once humiliated and he resolved to accept the scorn
and never to respond.

My wife’s great-aunt,
Henche Leiman a”h, passed away last week at the age of 100. One of her
relatives asked her recently to what she attributes her arichus yomim.
She thought a moment and responded, “Maybe it is because I never embarrassed
anyone.”

The Torah way is one of
sweetness and refinement. Yet, against that backdrop, the Torahpersonality
never shies away from what’s right and true because of personal bashfulness.

Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l
was once so upset that he felt ill and had to rest. He explained the cause of
his anguish to his concerned family members.

“This morning, a man came
to me with a story about a certain rov who, he claimed, is accepting
money to give a hechsher on a certain product. Although he has mashgichim
in the plant, he turns a blind eye to the improprieties taking place there and
the food is, in fact, treif. The man told me that he intends to go to
war against that rov and publicize his allegations. He asked me for my
blessings for the holy war he is about to engage in. I know the rov, and
I know the mashgichim, and I know that what the man is alleging is a
lie. I told the man that he is a nogeia bedovor, because this product
competes with a product that is under his own hechsher. I told him in
very strong terms that it is a lie. I told him very forcefully that what he
intends to do is wrong. And I told him that I would defend the other rov
and expose the accuser for what he is.”

Rav Moshe continued: “Since
then, I have had no peace. What I did was proper and it was the correct way to
proceed, but in the process I offended a fellow Yid. The pain of that
realization sent me to bed.”

This is the tightrope
walked by gedolei Yisroel. Darchei noam. Emes.

Yes, at times we have to
admonish people, but we should try to do it in a way that doesn’t cause shame
and embarrassment, and if it does, we should not gloat over what we have done,
as necessary as it may have been. We should be pained by what we had to do.

“Hochei’ach tochiach es
amisecha velo sisa olov cheit,” theTorah says. The Rambam’s opinion (Hilchos
Deios 6:7) is that this is a mitzvas asei to rebuke a person who is
doing something wrong, fused with a lo sa’asei forbidding us to
embarrass him while doing so. The Torah demands perfect harmony, combining
courage with compassion.

When Rav Elozor Menachem
Man Shach was well advanced in age and had very little contact with the outside
world, two roshei yeshiva insisted that they must see him. In his
weakened state, he sat at his desk as they entered the room. He was bent over
with age and the accumulated tzaros of Klal Yisroel and could
barely hold himself up as they spoke.

They told him of a boy they
felt they had to expel from their yeshiva. They said that he was mechallelShabbos in the dormitory and they could not have him around.

Rav Shach listened as they
spoke and then asked two questions.

“Do you know his family’s
financial situation?”

“No,” they answered.

“Do you know the matzav
of shalom bayis between his parents?”

“No,” they said. “How do
you expect us to know these things?”

Rav Shach pulled himself up
in his chair, leaned on the desk and, with tears pouring down his cheeks, said
to them, “Rodfim, leave my house. I don’t want to speak to you. You know
nothing about what is going on in the boy’s life. You don’t know what is doing
in his home. All you know is that you want to put him out on the street? Please
leave.”

When we must admonish
people who step out of line, we must be so careful addressing the issue.

But address it we must.

Perhaps we can suggest a
deeper connection between two seemingly contradictory attributes of Torah, neimus
and emes. People don’t appreciate being lectured. No one likes receiving
mussar. However, if the one who offers the rebuke loves us, we are more
open to it.

A mother tells her child,
“Close your jacket. It’s cold outside,” and the child hears love. An unfamiliar
passerby on the street offers the same suggestion and rarely is the advice
appreciated.

Our great rabbeim
loved their talmidim enough to be able to give them mussar. Our rabbeim
are intimately familiar with the needs and wants of their talmidim, so
the rebuke is threaded with love.

Rav Mendel Kaplan zt”l
once traveled to a community, driving through the night and arriving at the
local shul for Shacharis. He was exhausted. During Pesukei
Dezimra, he remained seated during a time when the tzibbur rose.
After Shacharis, a man went over to the guest and reminded him that halachah
dictates that he should have stood up while saying Vayevorech Dovid.

Rav Mendel thanked him and
remarked, “If you see a guest in shul, worry about where he’s eating
breakfast, not whether he stood up during Vayevorech Dovid.”

Rav Mendel understood the
power and potency of proper tochachah. He also knew that it can only be
served up together with genuine ahavas Yisroel.

The Alter of Slabodka zt”l
traveled to his rebbi and mentor, Rav Yisroel Salanter zt”l, to
tell him that he planned on opening a yeshiva. “Rebbi, I want to
open a yeshiva that will produce gedoleiTorah. What
should my role in the yeshiva be?”

Rav Yisroel turned to the
man who is responsible for much of the Torah we have today and said, “Your task
should be ‘lehachayos lev nidko’im, ulehachayos ruach shefolim.’” He
told him that he should be there to offer support and build up the morale of
the students. Bochurim need to be reminded of the heights they can
reach. Don’t let them become depressed. Don’t let them digress from the
missions. Make sure they recognize their abilities and feel good about
themselves.

Tochachah and mussar need not make people feel small. If you
want people to excel and to improve, admonish them with care and love. If you
are positive, not negative, you will accomplish a whole lot more.

So, as Shabbos Hagadol
approaches, we have to tap into the koach; pride and confidence to stand
tall. The lesson of our forefathers who tied the sheep to their beds and then
told the Mitzriyim of their plans, not seeking to curry favor with their
overlords or conceal their intentions from them, should inspire us.

Mishchu ukechu. Before we move forward with the mitzvos hechog,
we have to speak up and do our part to right wrongs. Proudly, with the courage
of our convictions and beliefs, coupled with proper middos and seichel
hayoshor, we cling to the Torah of our avos and defend what is
right.

The mesirus nefesh
unique to this Shabbos, of not being embarrassed of taking a stand and
saying the truth because we are armed with emunah and bitachon,
is what makes us a nation and ushers in Pesach.

On Shabbos Hagadol, we are reminded not be apathetic and not
to do mitzvos quietly. The Bnei Yisroel volunteered to the Mitzriyim
what they were doing with the sheep. We, as well, need to embrace our role to
stand tall and proud for Torah, emes, yosher and nitzchiyus.